Summarize

You may wonder if you’ve seen it all before and truth is, you probably have, but it seems modifying Ford Ranger bakkies is all the rage these days. First came the Peranas, quickly renamed RTRs and then Ford proper announced it will soon bring its own 220kW Raptor to SA. And now comes this – the Roush Performance Rangers have just hit the road too!

Roush says it spent two years preparing its Rangers for the road at the Roush Performance and Performance Centre in the USA and now it has one in this market too – a world first announced by Jack Roush Jr himself, accompanied by Roush Performance Director of International Projects, Robert Brown. They say this future collaboration with Performance Centre SA has the blessing of the Ford Motor Company, as witnessed by Ford SA CEO Casper Kruger to add impetus to the whole affair.

Roush Ford Rangers come in Stages 1, 2 and 3 states of tune and Roush wants us to tell you that it does not consider itself an aftermarket kit maker, but rather an exclusive engineering company. They promise top expertise is applied to any Roush upgrades and that every part is designed, fitted, tested and certified to Ford’s performance tolerances for the Ranger. Not that we’d expect any less from any other tuner... 

Roush further promises its Ranger driveline remains under-stressed, which is why its Rangers come with a three-year/60 000km drive-train warranty with full Ford SA support; an M&M Upgrade Code for easy bank finance and insurance. They further tell us that the two-year Ranger project involved full Roush engineering expertise in from the get-go and only genuine parts were used after passing rigorous international tests…

The Roush range kicks off with the purely cosmetic R130 000 Stage 1 Ranger offering aesthetic upgrades to individualize the Ranger and make it stand out against a standard Ranger, although other tuners also supply a surprisingly similar kit under a different name...

The R185 000 Stage 2 Roush Ranger takes it a step further with the addition of an improved high-flow cat back exhaust; a little fiddling on the ECU to include 5 pre-mapped programmes and a hybrid turbo to up power by 16% to deliver 170kW at the flywheel.

The R240 000 Roush Stage 3 Ranger goes the whole hog to deliver up to 30% more power thanks to the addition of a High-flow cat-back exhaust system, a performance uprated intercooler, hybrid turbo upgrade and that 5-map software. Add Pedders Kevlar Ceramic braking and foam cell TrakRyder Shocks with an elevated ride height and your Ranger will have it all.

We are however still scratching our heads at why there is so much competition around just one bakkie brand when there are so many others out there? But the Ford buyer is now truly  spoiled for choice between this and several other ways of teak that Ranger to be truly your own…